“I want to be rich.”
I don’t know where I was the first time I typed it into Google. But it’s one of those subjects I’ve returned to a lot of over the years.
I was worried what people would think, of course. Making money can be a bit taboo. And saying you want to be rich – in some circles – can get you judged.
But here we are. This is a safe space.
And one of the reasons I started this website was because I found that my parents’ advice didn’t work.
They told me to study hard, stay in school, and get a good job. And they meant well. But the world changed really fast. And that advice often doesn’t work anymore
So if you are Googling “I want to be rich”, this one’s for you. I want to give you the framework I’m following.
But wait, what is rich? It’s all relative, isn’t it? Do you want to be a millionaire or do you want to be the next Elon Musk? Those are two very different things
So for this article, we’ll talk about how to break $173,000 a year. That would put you in the top 10% of American earners. Anything beyond that is gravy!
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1. Let yourself want
Start with this. It’s okay to want to be rich.
Different people have different reasons for it.
But especially if you’ve been poor, you know how much it sucks.
And you might have been discouraged in the past by people telling you not to be greedy or that being rich is bad.
You might have money blocks that you need to get over. That’s okay.
It takes time.
But it’s okay to want to be rich.
2. Learn high-income skills
If you want to be rich, one of the best places to start is by learning high-income skills.
High-income skills are skills in super high demand in the marketplace. They are used by companies, so ideally people are hiring for them. But they also give you the flexibility to start a business.
If you looked at my first 10 years of work history, it’s a disaster. I had a history and an English degree, I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going.
But somewhere along the way, I started blogging. And because I loved blogging, I accidentally learned a high-income skill: content marketing.
There are a lot of different options, and you can find one that fits your interests. But from coding to sales to marketing, starting with a high-income skill is awesome.
I swear by Skillshare for learning new high-income skills. Everything you need is there for you to learn pretty much anything you want.
3. Choose high-income fields
Once you’ve taken the time to learn a high-income skill, the next step is to choose a high-income field.
Would you believe that skills are often valued very differently depending on what field you’re in?
A researcher for a nonprofit and a researcher for a tech company get paid very differently.
Start to do research for where you can use your skills, but pay attention to fields.
For example, if I’m a writer, looking on ZipRecruiter for writing jobs will give me a certain salary band across the market. But if I look on levels.fyi, which is a tech aggregator, I can see how much more my skills are worth at a tech company.
4. Build in business skills
High-income skills take you so far, but I’m a believer that true wealth comes from learning business skills too.
In part, this is because you will inevitably hit a ceiling working for someone else. Learning to use your skills in a way that scales, connecting them to a business, can give you more earning potential.
And again for the seats at the back, Skillshare has amazing courses in business. Everything from using Google Analytics to Using Company Values to Drive Success is available to you. Highly recommend!
5. Build a money machine
If you want to be rich, at some point wealth has to go beyond your hourly rate of pay. A good salary or income can be a good start, but once you start making bank, some of that money should be going back into building a money machine.
What’s a money machine? I’m so glad you asked!
A money machine is an income-producing asset that creates cash flow even when you’re sleeping. Another word for this is “passive income.”
This blog makes money every day, whether I log on to it or not. It makes money from affiliates and advertising.
There are different things you can include in your money machine, but here are some of the most common.
- Businesses
- Stock Market Investments
- Bonds
- Index Funds
- Real Estate
- Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS)
- Patents
- Licenses
- Franchises
Just a note, when it comes to businesses, there are different ways to make money off of them. Some businesses pay a monthly cash flow or dividend. Some businesses grow in valuation – let’s say a company stock goes up – and the founders or shareholders take out loans against their shares.
There are all sorts of different ways to make a business a money machine. Do your research!
6. Learn to keep your money
Remember those shareholders we just talked about, who take out loans against their shares of a company?
The crazy thing is, those loans are liabilities instead of assets. That means that they’re not taxable.
I didn’t know this before I started this game. And chances are you didn’t either.
One of the ways that the rich keep their money is by understanding taxes. I’m not going to get into it much here, and I ain’t no accountant.
But for me, even owning a corporation has made a difference. My wife needed a new laptop last week for our work. Once upon a time, that would have come out of our salaries – after we paid tax to the government.
Now, it’s a business expense.
We used to get taxed on our income and buy what we needed with the money left over.
Now, we pay taxes after we buy the things we need; we’re taxed on money left over.
This is just one of the ways the world is set up for business. But you probably wouldn’t know this if you never learned about business.
So start learning!
7. Invest
We started talking about this with the money machine. But your goal is to have more money than you know what to do with. That seems almost impossible if you’re just getting started, but if you play your cards right, it’s not.
But then, the trick is, don’t spend it all. Dump as much as you can into other investments. Go watch wealthy people and you’ll see that that’s what they do.
Conclusion
I want to be rich. And the things in the article above are the steps I’ve learned over the years from studying wealthy people and from growing my own wealth.
I hope they’re helpful to you. Good luck.
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